Battle of the Machines
by
Shoto Man
Bass cursed and kicked a rock across the cavern. It had been a mere matter of weeks since Mega Man had been through and demolished the "Wily Tower," thus ending the eighth Robot Rebellion. Now all that was left of it was rubble. And Wily sent me here to salvage anything useful, Bass thought bitterly. Right. More accurately, he just wants me out of the way for a while. He knows more than anyone how thoroughly his fortresses blow up. It wasn't that the black and gold armored robot blamed his creator for disposing of him in such a manner-after all, Bass' independent nature caused the two to clash constantly-but that didn't mean he had to like it. Now he was overseeing a troupe of Sniper Joes and Metools as they dug through the useless garbage.
Bass was pacing back and forth, making a pretense at watching the proceedings when something caught his eye. It was the entrance to a tunnel that he had never seen before. There was probably nothing in the tunnel that had any relevance to his current "mission" but that had never stopped him before. Besides, he was bored. So he decided to do a little spelunking.
Minutes later Bass was humming tunelessly as the light from his small flashlight illuminated the dull rock that made up the walls of the tunnel. He wasn't really any less bored now than he was before. The tunnel went straight with no forks or bends so far, and there wasn't even any bats for him to terrorize. Guess I better be getting back, Bass thought with a sigh as he made one last sweep with his flashlight. A slight glint of reflected light caused him to stop. Well, hello, what have we here?
Bas walked up to the source of the reflected light and picked it up. He couldn't help but chuckle. It was an old portable cassette player. Made sometime in the nineteen eighties from boxy, overly primitive look to it. It's only real distinguishing mark was a purple symbol on its face, where it opened to allow the cassettes. It was violet in color, all angles yet resembling a face in some shape or form. Bass shook his head. "Worthless junk," he muttered aloud as he tossed the recorder behind him. Now it really was time to get back to the excavation site.
KCH-CH-CH-CH-CH-CH!
The sound stopped him in his tracks. It was loud and synthesized-sounding. And it came from behind him. He turned to see what happened and slowly turned his gaze upward. He didn't like what he saw. "Aw crap!" he muttered to himself a moment before a large blast of energy sent him flying. Bass' limp form flew into the chamber with the remains of Wily's fortress. He slid across the ground, leaving a deep furrow in the wreckage. When he came to a stop, he slowly got to his feet, smoke rising from his chest. With a quick clenching of his fist, a panel on his forearm slid open revealing his energy meter. Bass did a double take. For as big and seemingly powerful as that blast had been, it didn't do any more than one of Mega Man's fully charged Mega Buster shots did. Bass grinned as he powered up a shot of his own for the opponent he knew was coming.
And come he did. He was a huge robot, the size of some of Wily's fortress guardians. His was purple, white and gray, and blocky in design, with the same face-like symbol on his window-like chest. It was obvious that the "piece-of-junk" tape player was more than it had initially seemed.
Bass held up a hand as the Sniper Joes came charging in on this new threat. "Halt where you are!" He ordered. "This one's mine!" He finished by blasting the new robot full in the face with his charged buster shot followed by rapid fire shots. The newcomer backed up back into the tunnel. Bass grinned. Yes! he thought as he began to charge his buster. The new robot began firing with his own hand-held blaster, using the tunnel entrance as cover. Bass dodged the blasts and returned fire, causing the purple robot to withdraw back into the tunnel. Time to bring him out in the open, Bass thought as he whistled. The purple wolf-like robo-dog named Treble trotted up to his side. "All right, boy, sic 'em!" Bass commanded. Bass charged into the tunnel. Less than a second later, the new robot stumbled out of the tunnel with Treble latched on to his shoulder.
Bass' opponent reached over and threw the dog to the ground, then hit a hidden button on his shoulder. His chest opened and a tape cassette launched from it. "Ravage: eject!" the robot said as the cassette transformed into a robotic jaguar. "Operation: interception!"
With a roar the black jaguar, apparently named Ravage, leaped at Treble. The two became involved in a heavy battle of claws and teeth. Bass grinned. "Looks like you're all outta surprises."
"Negative," the new robot responded as he ejected two more tapes from his chest. "Rumble, Frenzy: eject!" The tapes transformed into two nearly identical humanoid robots not much bigger than Bass himself. "Attack!"
One of the smaller robots grinned. "Sure thing, Soundwave!"
Rumble and Frenzy transformed their arms into turbines and began pounding the ground with them, causing the ground to open up under Bass' feet. Bass yelled a curse as the ground swallowed him up. His two attackers walked up to where he once stood and looked at their handiwork. Rumble grinned. "That was easy enough, wasn't it, Frenzy?"
"You got ieaaghghg!" Frenzy cried as a blast of plasma erupted from the ground and hit him full in the chest. Bass erupted from the ground himself and punched Rumble right in the face before clonking their heads together, knocking them unconscious.
Bass turned to face his real opponent. "Now will you face me like a man, 'Soundwave?'"
Soundwave nodded. "Affirmative!" At that moment he fired rapid fire slugs from his shoulder cannon. Bass dodged them all and returned fire, hitting his opponent in the chest. Soundwave responded by delivering a devastating uppercut, sending Bass flying into the ceiling. Bass fell limply to the ground, seemingly unconscious. Soundwave leaned over to make sure this opponent was down for the count when Bass suddenly came to life and blasted him point-blank in the face. He didn't let up, shooting him over and over again until he fell. Soundwave shook his head and began to stand up, only to feel Bass land on his chest and to find Bass' arm cannon in his face. Bass in turn felt the tip of Soundwave's blaster against the side of his head, bringing the match to a draw.
"Okay," Bass said. "I'm a reasonable robot. If we continue from here, all that's gonna happen is that both of us will find ourselves non functioning corpses. How 'bout we call a cease fire at least 'till we find out if it's worth blowing each others heads off."
Soundwave nodded. "Your proposal is acceptable."
Bass got off of Soundwave's chest, allowing the larger robot to stand up. "All right," Bass began. "Name's Bass. Technically I'm second in command to Dr. Wily's robot army bent on conquering the world, but I really just enjoy the violence, and just stick around 'cuz it's handy having somebody to patch you up after a particularly fun night. How about you?"
"I am Soundwave. Communications Officer for the Decepticon army of the planet Cybertron."
Bass scratched his chin, thoughtfully. "Cybertron, eh?" Bass grinned. "I can already tell that your story's gonna be a heck of a lot more interesting than mine..."
by
Shoto Man
Bass cursed and kicked a rock across the cavern. It had been a mere matter of weeks since Mega Man had been through and demolished the "Wily Tower," thus ending the eighth Robot Rebellion. Now all that was left of it was rubble. And Wily sent me here to salvage anything useful, Bass thought bitterly. Right. More accurately, he just wants me out of the way for a while. He knows more than anyone how thoroughly his fortresses blow up. It wasn't that the black and gold armored robot blamed his creator for disposing of him in such a manner-after all, Bass' independent nature caused the two to clash constantly-but that didn't mean he had to like it. Now he was overseeing a troupe of Sniper Joes and Metools as they dug through the useless garbage.
Bass was pacing back and forth, making a pretense at watching the proceedings when something caught his eye. It was the entrance to a tunnel that he had never seen before. There was probably nothing in the tunnel that had any relevance to his current "mission" but that had never stopped him before. Besides, he was bored. So he decided to do a little spelunking.
Minutes later Bass was humming tunelessly as the light from his small flashlight illuminated the dull rock that made up the walls of the tunnel. He wasn't really any less bored now than he was before. The tunnel went straight with no forks or bends so far, and there wasn't even any bats for him to terrorize. Guess I better be getting back, Bass thought with a sigh as he made one last sweep with his flashlight. A slight glint of reflected light caused him to stop. Well, hello, what have we here?
Bas walked up to the source of the reflected light and picked it up. He couldn't help but chuckle. It was an old portable cassette player. Made sometime in the nineteen eighties from boxy, overly primitive look to it. It's only real distinguishing mark was a purple symbol on its face, where it opened to allow the cassettes. It was violet in color, all angles yet resembling a face in some shape or form. Bass shook his head. "Worthless junk," he muttered aloud as he tossed the recorder behind him. Now it really was time to get back to the excavation site.
KCH-CH-CH-CH-CH-CH!
The sound stopped him in his tracks. It was loud and synthesized-sounding. And it came from behind him. He turned to see what happened and slowly turned his gaze upward. He didn't like what he saw. "Aw crap!" he muttered to himself a moment before a large blast of energy sent him flying. Bass' limp form flew into the chamber with the remains of Wily's fortress. He slid across the ground, leaving a deep furrow in the wreckage. When he came to a stop, he slowly got to his feet, smoke rising from his chest. With a quick clenching of his fist, a panel on his forearm slid open revealing his energy meter. Bass did a double take. For as big and seemingly powerful as that blast had been, it didn't do any more than one of Mega Man's fully charged Mega Buster shots did. Bass grinned as he powered up a shot of his own for the opponent he knew was coming.
And come he did. He was a huge robot, the size of some of Wily's fortress guardians. His was purple, white and gray, and blocky in design, with the same face-like symbol on his window-like chest. It was obvious that the "piece-of-junk" tape player was more than it had initially seemed.
Bass held up a hand as the Sniper Joes came charging in on this new threat. "Halt where you are!" He ordered. "This one's mine!" He finished by blasting the new robot full in the face with his charged buster shot followed by rapid fire shots. The newcomer backed up back into the tunnel. Bass grinned. Yes! he thought as he began to charge his buster. The new robot began firing with his own hand-held blaster, using the tunnel entrance as cover. Bass dodged the blasts and returned fire, causing the purple robot to withdraw back into the tunnel. Time to bring him out in the open, Bass thought as he whistled. The purple wolf-like robo-dog named Treble trotted up to his side. "All right, boy, sic 'em!" Bass commanded. Bass charged into the tunnel. Less than a second later, the new robot stumbled out of the tunnel with Treble latched on to his shoulder.
Bass' opponent reached over and threw the dog to the ground, then hit a hidden button on his shoulder. His chest opened and a tape cassette launched from it. "Ravage: eject!" the robot said as the cassette transformed into a robotic jaguar. "Operation: interception!"
With a roar the black jaguar, apparently named Ravage, leaped at Treble. The two became involved in a heavy battle of claws and teeth. Bass grinned. "Looks like you're all outta surprises."
"Negative," the new robot responded as he ejected two more tapes from his chest. "Rumble, Frenzy: eject!" The tapes transformed into two nearly identical humanoid robots not much bigger than Bass himself. "Attack!"
One of the smaller robots grinned. "Sure thing, Soundwave!"
Rumble and Frenzy transformed their arms into turbines and began pounding the ground with them, causing the ground to open up under Bass' feet. Bass yelled a curse as the ground swallowed him up. His two attackers walked up to where he once stood and looked at their handiwork. Rumble grinned. "That was easy enough, wasn't it, Frenzy?"
"You got ieaaghghg!" Frenzy cried as a blast of plasma erupted from the ground and hit him full in the chest. Bass erupted from the ground himself and punched Rumble right in the face before clonking their heads together, knocking them unconscious.
Bass turned to face his real opponent. "Now will you face me like a man, 'Soundwave?'"
Soundwave nodded. "Affirmative!" At that moment he fired rapid fire slugs from his shoulder cannon. Bass dodged them all and returned fire, hitting his opponent in the chest. Soundwave responded by delivering a devastating uppercut, sending Bass flying into the ceiling. Bass fell limply to the ground, seemingly unconscious. Soundwave leaned over to make sure this opponent was down for the count when Bass suddenly came to life and blasted him point-blank in the face. He didn't let up, shooting him over and over again until he fell. Soundwave shook his head and began to stand up, only to feel Bass land on his chest and to find Bass' arm cannon in his face. Bass in turn felt the tip of Soundwave's blaster against the side of his head, bringing the match to a draw.
"Okay," Bass said. "I'm a reasonable robot. If we continue from here, all that's gonna happen is that both of us will find ourselves non functioning corpses. How 'bout we call a cease fire at least 'till we find out if it's worth blowing each others heads off."
Soundwave nodded. "Your proposal is acceptable."
Bass got off of Soundwave's chest, allowing the larger robot to stand up. "All right," Bass began. "Name's Bass. Technically I'm second in command to Dr. Wily's robot army bent on conquering the world, but I really just enjoy the violence, and just stick around 'cuz it's handy having somebody to patch you up after a particularly fun night. How about you?"
"I am Soundwave. Communications Officer for the Decepticon army of the planet Cybertron."
Bass scratched his chin, thoughtfully. "Cybertron, eh?" Bass grinned. "I can already tell that your story's gonna be a heck of a lot more interesting than mine..."